Shanghai just can’t catch a break – first it was floating dead pigs, then ducks, then black swans, then mass chicken exterminations, and now fish. From the Telegraph: ” Just weeks after over 16,000 putrefying pigs were pulled from Shanghai’s Huangpu river, more than 250kg of dead carp had to be retrieved from a river in the city’s Songjiang district. Mystery still surrounds the cause of death, but numerous explanations have surfaced in the Chinese media since residents first complained about the foul-smelling fish last Monday. Theories reportedly include climate change, electrocution, an explosion or even a drug overdose. The Shanghai Daily quoted a local government official who “speculated” the fish could have been “drugged.” So, in China things are so good, even the fish are ODing on sleeping pills? Hardly, but the fact that this is even floated “out there” just shows how miserably The Onion has missed its IPO window.

MCD slashing chicken prices in Shanghai on birdflu. How is YUM faring?

How do you know when the people “just say no” to chicken over rampant bird flu concerns? When even McDonalds (whose ad campaign for the past decade “I am loving it” continues to be an anagram for “ailing vomit“) is forced to slash chicken-related prices, in this case the 20 piece McNuggets, from CNY36 to CNY20. Pretty soon not even giving away the McMystery meat will clear out the shelves of all chicken-related fast food first in Shanghai and soon elsewhere in China. Finally, we dread to imagine the horrors that will befall Yum (read China KFC sales), now that after so much pain, the fast-food chain had finally reported a modest bounce in Chinese sales. So much for that.

Xinhua News Agency‏@XHNews22 hAnother H7N9 infection was reported in Anhui Province Sunday night, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in China to 21.

H7N9 Bird Flu Cases Reach 21 In China; Death Total Unchanged At Six

Three new cases of the deadly bird flu H7N9 were discovered in China yesterday, bringing the total in the country to 21, the government’s Xinhua news agency reported this morning. The sick have all been discovered in eastern China; Shanghai, one of the country’s most important international business hubs, has 10 of the cases.

Eastern Chinese cities have been closing live poultry markets and taking other measures to try to contain the disease which has killed six to date.

Officials throughout Asia are implementing measures to protect themselves from a new strain of bird flu – H7N9 – that has so far infected 21 people in China, killing six.

These are the first human infections and deaths to have been recorded from this virus strain worldwide. China’s neighbours have reacted by boosting hospital capabilities and disease surveillance, strengthening border control, issuing reminders to ban illegal poultry imports, and more vigorously testing what is imported.

Shanghai will temporarily close all its live poultry markets after an unusual strain of bird flu that has so far killed six people in China was found in pigeons on sale in the city.a sign of broader regional concern about the situation, the Hospital Authority in Hong Kong said it had sent a team of six people, including experts from Hong Kong University and the Center for Health Protection, to Shanghai on Thursday.The team’s purpose was to “learn about the experience of H7N9″ in Shanghai, the authority said, adding that it was due to return late Friday.